


8 Hours

by HappyLeech



Series: Gifted Lives [4]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Faint Mattlomo, Gen, Nightmares, Prompt Fill, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 16:43:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16044428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyLeech/pseuds/HappyLeech
Summary: He’s 6 when the Chorus elections start, 7 when the bombs go off, and 8 when Alanna Jacobi pulls him and Major Kimball out of the rubble of a townhouse.Nicola Matthews doesn’t sleep well.Bad Things Happen Bingo: Nightmares





	8 Hours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BoxOnTheNile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoxOnTheNile/gifts).



Nicola Matthews hates being in the hospital.

Well, that’s not quite true. He likes working in the hospital when he isn’t with Captain Grif, following ~~mom~~ Dr. Jacobi around and helping out where he can. But he hates _being_ in the hospital.

Charles passed out an hour ago despite saying that he was going to stay awake until Nicola fell asleep, and he awkwardly tosses one of the thin blankets over Charles’ shoulder before laying back and fidgeting.

Only 8 hours til daybreak.

* * *

 

“Shh…shh baby. It’s okay. It’ll be okay, Mamma just needs you to hide here. Do you understand, baby?”

A hand smooths his hair, and Nicola nods. Loud explosions had rocked the house for hours and no matter what, he can’t make his parents laugh.

“It’ll be okay,” she whispers to him, and shuts the cellar door.

* * *

 

Nicola closes his eyes and holds his hands over his ears. Someone – _Mamma_ \- was screaming but they stopped once something wet started to drip down onto his hair. The loud explosions hadn’t returned, but loud popping noises had rattled through the house above.

Nicola sniffles.

When would he be allowed to come out?

* * *

 

He doesn’t know how long he hid in the cellar, but once he pushes it open and crawls out, there are stars in the sky.

Nicola shouldn’t be able to see them from the kitchen.

Mamma isn’t moving ~~dead~~ , and Papa is gone. Nicola wipes his face on the hand-towel even though “it’s for your hands, baby, not your face!” and looks around.

He crawls under his bed and closes his eyes and hopes that it’s all just a nightmare.

* * *

 

Nicola wakes to sun in his eyes and silence around him. Mamma should be singing, Papa getting ready for work.

But there’s only him and his lion.

He packs a bag, like the children in the books Mamma read to him, and leaves. He doesn’t go back into the kitchen.

* * *

 

Nicola never liked Ostina. People used to stare at him there and say things that made Mamma cry when they got home.

He hates it now. The adults there try to hurt him, and the other kids took away his backpack, so he stops looking for people and starts hiding.

Sitting where the library used to be, he curls up with his lion and tries to sleep.

He doesn’t sleep.

* * *

 

“Pst! Kid, come here!”

Nicola shakes his head as he pushes himself further back into his hidey-hole. Someone had followed him to the library, so he’d started sleeping near the grocery store, but the someone had followed him there too. Now they were trying to pull him out of his spot, trying to hurt him.

“Trust me, kid, you don’t want to make me crawl in there after you,” the someone says, and Nicola sniffles.

* * *

 

The someone tries to take away his lion but Nicola kicked and bit until the someone gave up and stuck a weird glowy thing to him instead of his lion.

“You stay here, okay? You’re going to be brave, and when the people show up, I want you to say boom, okay?” the someone snaps their fingers and Nicola flinches. He doesn’t like the someone. “Okay?”

“…kay,” he whispers as he and his lion and the glowy thing are set in the middle of a room.

He knows what a bomb is.

He doesn’t say boom.

* * *

 

Nicola is crying and there are other people crying too. A big man who didn’t try and take away his lion was trying to take the glowy thing off him and a small man is holding his hand.

“A kid, just a fucking kid. Jesus, the Feds really are monsters,” the small man says to a woman with a headset. “What’s your lion’s name?” he says to Nicola.

“Potato,” Nicola whisper, and the men smile and the woman laughs.

The timer ticks down.

_5_

“What do we do?”

_4_

“I can’t- we can’t just leave him!”

_3_

“We can’t get out of the blast zone anyways, we don’t have the time.”

_2_

“Major! What are you—?!”

_1_

“I’ve got you!”

* * *

 

Someone is shaking him, and Nicola opens his eyes with a gasp.

“Nicola! Are you okay?” Charles asks, and Nicola tries to answer. His throat hurts and his eyes sting and someone else is holding his hand.

“You were screaming,” Dr. Jacobi says, and Nicola rolls over. She’s sitting on the other side of his bed, his hand in hers. “I know you hate it here, but I need to get fluids into you somehow.”

“Oh,” he says, feeling his face heat up. “Sorry.”

Dr. Jacobi smiles. “It’s okay. I have nightmares too. I’m sure Charles does as well.” She pats him on the hand and stands. “Come on, Palomo. Let’s go get Nicola something to eat.”

“Doc, uh, Mom... Do you know if General Kimball still has Potato?” Nicola asks. He had given her his lion when she went into surgery the week that they found him, for good luck. After all, Potato had helped him find a new home, a new family.

“Yeah, she does.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's beginning to look a lot like Angstmasssssss~~~~ (I love writing sad/violent/gory shit so much u guys so the Bad Things Happen Bingo is SO up my alley) This one is pretty tame but the others are going to ramp it up~
> 
> * * *
> 
> * Dr. Alanna Jacobi is an OFC that belongs to my datemate @BoxOnTheNile and I love her almost as much as I love them.  
> * This fits in my Gifts Verse 1) because Matthews was helping his parents stay positive in the beginning of the conflict 2) because his lion stuffed animal is the conduit through which Kimball receives her (first) Gift and 3) this is Matthews backstory in the AU  
> * the 'Somebody' who stuck a bomb on Matthews was either Felix (and the poor kid doesn't remember) or someone working under Felix's orders bc they were going to take out a major New Republic squad. Then Kimball happened.  
> * Consistent tenses??? I don't know her  
> * I'm open for prompts on my Personal Tumblr!
> 
> * * *
> 
> [Personal Tumblr](http://happyleech.tumblr.com/) / [TextsFromLastNight Red vs Blue Tumblr](https://textsfromchorus.tumblr.com/) / [Gift 'Verse World Building Google Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1euGnfyh6O01P5u5dVyJbNr9yMSwVHwtQ0ay7WU9AJ7A/edit?usp=sharing/)


End file.
